02 Sep KI TESEH- THE SINNER’S PRISTINELY PURE SOUL

The Torah in Parashat
Ki-Teseh introduces
the obligation of
“Malkut” – the
lashes given to sinners
who are found guilty
of certain transgressions. In the times of
the Sanhedrin, there were courts with the
authority to administer corporal punishment,
and those who were convicted of certain
Biblical violations were given “Malkut.”
The Torah states explicitly that an individual
deserving of this punishment receives forty
lashes – “Arba’im Yakenu” (25:3). The Sages,
however, understood that the Torah’s intent
is that the sinner receives thirty-nine lashes,
and not forty. The Gemara (Makkot 22b)
inferred this reduction from the juxtaposition
between this verse and the preceding verse,
which concludes with the words “Be’mispar”
(literally, “in the number”). This word,
together with the words “Arba’im Yakenu,”
form the phrase “Be’mispar Arba’im Yakenu,”
which can be read to mean “he shall strike him
in the number that leads to forty,” referring to
thirty-nine.
The question, however, obviously arises as to
why the Torah did not simply write that the
sinner receives thirty-nine lashes. Why did it
formulate this law in a manner which clearly
indicates forty lashes, and only through a
subtle allusion instructs reducing this number
to thirty-nine?

An insightful answer to this question is
given by the Maharal of Prague (d. 1609),
in his Gur Aryeh. He explains that it is
appropriate for a sinner to receive forty
lashes, because sin contaminates a person’s
being, which was formed in forty days. The

fetus takes form over the course of the forty-
day period following conception, and thus

forty is associated with the human being’s
creation. As sin undermines the very purpose
for why we were created, a sinner must be
punished once for each day of his formation,
for a total of forty lashes. However, the
Maharal writes, a person’s essence is
comprised of two elements – the body and the
soul. A person’s physical properties take form
during the thirty-nine days after conception,
whereas the soul enters at the very end of
this process, on the fortieth day. Now each
morning, in the “Elokai Neshama” blessing,
we proclaim that the soul which Hashem
has given us is pristinely pure (“…Neshama
She’natata Bi Tehora Hi”). Even if a person
commits the gravest sins, his soul remains
perfectly pure. It is the body that commits
the sin; the soul is merely an unwilling
participant, so-to-speak, “dragged” into the
act of sin due to its being bound together with
the body. Fundamentally, the soul needs to be
punished, too, because of its involvement in
the process of wrongdoing, by virtue of its
connection to the body. However, after the
sinner receives thirty-nine lashes, his entire

physical being is cleansed. These thirty-nine
lashes atone for the contamination of his body
which was formed during the thirty-nine days
after conception. And thus, at this point, there
is no reason for the soul to be punished. The
soul deserved punishment only due to its
association with the body that had committed
the wrongful act, and so once the body has
been renewed through the thirty-nine lashes,
there is no longer a need for the fortieth lash,
which would serve to atone for the soul.
This is why, the Maharal explains, the Torah
writes that the sinner receives forty lashes,

whereas in truth he receives only thirty-
nine. At the outset, he requires forty lashes,

because even the soul deserves punishment
due to its connection to the body, which
committed the act. But in practice, once the
sinner receives thirty-nine lashes, there is no
longer any reason to administer the fortieth,
which corresponds to the soul, since the
thirty-nine lashes had cleansed the body, and
it was only on account of the body’s guilt that
the fortieth lash was needed.
I believe there is a critical message being
conveyed by this Halacha, as understood
by the Maharal. When the sinner is brought
to the court to receive his punishment, he is
shown that his soul remains pure despite his
wrongdoing. His sentence is reduced by one
because his pure, sacred soul was not tainted
by his mistake. The purpose of the Torah’s
punishments is not to destroy the sinner, but

to the contrary – to motivate him to grow and
change. To this end, he is told that he will not
receive any lashes corresponding to his soul,
because no matter what he did wrong, his soul
remains holy and untarnished. Knowing that
he still possesses a sacred soul, the sinner will
be encouraged to change and refrain from
wrongdoing in the future.
One of the greatest obstacles to Teshuba is the
feeling that it’s too late, that we’re too tainted,
that we’ve fallen too low to recover. The
thirty-nine lashes show us that there’s a part
of us that can never be tainted, a spark of
goodness and holiness within our beings that
will always remain pristinely pure no matter
what mistakes we have made. Although we
at times fail, we must feel confident in our
inherent G-dliness, in the element of Kedusha
within our beings that assures our ability to
improve and return to Hashem.